Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Okay, see that bull in the back? We need a name for him. He's 18 months. We bought him a couple of months ago and still haven't named him. We have to come up with something to put on his papers. Any suggestions? ( Nobody would let me call him Fluffy, Snookums, or Cuddle Bug. I don't know why.)

The bull in front is one that was raised on the farm from a baby. We have already sold him to our neighbor. We took him over to the neighbor's farm and then the next morning, he was back. He jumped the neighbor's fence, and then he jumped back into our pasture. He didn't want to leave! We took him back the next day. This time neighbor put him in the barn for a week. So far, no extra bull in our field.

We are dealing with coyotes. Lot's and lot's of coyotes. Just last night we heard them in our front yard! My small house dog is in heat. I'm wondering if that's why they came so close. Our neighbor had a 300 lbs calf killed just last weekend. He found it down in the holler. Half of it was eaten. Two days later he found his beagle dead down in the holler. Same thing, half eaten.We think it's coyotes. (I suggested aliens, but that just got me some eye rolls. No imagination.)

Oh I almost forgot. My fantastic Hubby built me a clothes line yesterday. It's wonderful. I'll post pictures of it later. Now I can hang clothes to dry instead of heating up the whole house while using the dryer. This summer we haven't used our air conditioning. That may not be that big of a deal where you live, but here it's been in the 90's with the humidity as thick as pea soup. We do have a small window unit in our bedroom. (I'm a wimp when it comes to my sleep. I need it to be cool.)

Monday, June 29, 2009

This is the after picture. Now please excuse me as I post a few more pictures of her. She is just too pretty for one picture.

Oh, this is what happens when you wear a hat when you bale hay.

There were some people who got all spiffed up for the wedding.

Lil' Sis looks pretty too.

This is Crazy Cuz's dad. Bob, James Bob. Double O Six if you will.

These guys look like lambs to slaughter.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"Quit looking at me like that DAD!"

"I do."

They literally skipped down the isle when it was all over with.

Isn't this bouquet of flowers beautiful. If you will notice the small white speck on the left side, that is bird poop. I guess that's what you get for an outdoors wedding. At least it wasn't on her dress or on her head. ( although that would have made for some really funny pictures.)

They boogied for they're first dance.

Then when the father and daughter dance was going on, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. (I think I need tissues again. sniff)

But at the end of the day, Crazy Cuz, is still Crazy Cuz. Welcome to the family Bill, your in for a long, crazy ride.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

It's amazing how close you can get to these birds. This picture is not touched up in any way.

This is not the same picture. But it is a little bit further away. I'm getting about 5 to 6 of these little cuties at one time. One summer I counted 16! That was at one time. It sounded like a swarm of bees.

Remember this nest. Well look a little closer, you will see 6, yes that's right,6 little mouths to feed. Mommy is sure busy. Speaking of busy, guess what we've been doing around here.

That's right, making hay. (well you know what I mean.) We raked and rolled 109 rolls of hay.(when I say we, I mean Hubby. But, I did make sure he had plenty of ice tea to drink.)Each roll weighs about 1000 pounds. We have big bales. That's Glamore Girl riding up there on the tractor with Hubby. I finally got her away from the computer. But, I bet she still has her cell phone.

The garden is starting to get its act together. And yes, I picked the zucchini. And yes, It tasted wonderful.We are getting a lot of zucchini and squash right now, but the tomatoes and beans are just about to take off. I found a bean that was an inch long. I won't have to wait much longer. Soon all I'll want is a break from canning and freezing. Can't have it all. Wouldn't it be nice if you would wake up one day and all of your planting and weeding and canning and freezing were done. Oh wait they do have that, it's called Krogers.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Okay, now that I've got your attention with the title, I'm going to apologize for the rant that I am about to go on. Kids now a days. I think I've figured them out. They are over stimulated. I have come to that conclusion in the past few days. One of the reasons that I haven't been able to blog a lot lately is,between Hubby playing Farm Town on Facebook and Glamore Girl on her Myspace, I haven't had any time on the computer.

Anyways, Hubby's daughter,Glamore Girl, has been staying with us for the past few days. I could not believe some of the habits teenagers have now a days. I really think one of the main reasons some(I use the word "some" so as not to get a thousand comments about how THEIR teenager isn't like that)teens have problems today,is that they are over stimulated.

GG gets up in the morning. The first thing she does is grab her cell phone so that she can text someone.(Was not my idea to get her a phone) She then comes in and turns on the tv. Still texting. Then she gets the laptop and goes to myspace and starts typing to her friends. All the time this is going on, her phone keeps vibrating, letting her know that she has a text coming in. So, being able to multi-task, she is typing on the computer with one hand, and texting with the other. Oh, and watching tv. Whew, I'm already tired and it's just getting started.

She asks to go 4 wheeling. We said no. Hubby had to mow hay. Now she is bored. I told her to help weed the garden, go read a book, sit on the front porch and enjoy the humming birds, take a walk, go fishing in the pond, or do hundreds of other things that you can get into on a farm. Nope, she just wanted to be bored. I didn't want her to ride the 4 wheeler around by herself because unless we are riding with her, she likes to go FAST! More stimulation. Oh and still texting.

So while she is texting, she gets an invitation to a birthday party. Hey, a party that might be fun. She is there less than an hour and (you guessed it) texted me to say that she was bored. So Hubby goes and picks her up. I am exercising(swimming) at my cousins house. We ask if she wants to go swimming. "Not really." she says. So as we sit and visit with my cousin, she is at the table texting. I can barely control myself. It would be sooooo tempting to throw that phone into the pool. But, me being the good step mom that I am,(LOL) I don't. (although I imagined it in my mind)

So we finally come home. It's kind of late and everybody needs to get baths and showers. She takes a bath.(that way she can text in the tub) Then while I'm taking my shower, she is back on the computer talking to her friends. I've just about had it. I tell her to go to bed. "I'm not tired" she said. No wonder, over stimulated. She does, finally go to bed. But we still had to make her go.

After a few minutes, I get ready to go to bed. I happen to glance in her room as I go to ours, there she is with the lights on and the radio going full blast. I go in to turn things off. As soon as I turn off the radio, she sits up and says she can't sleep unless her radio is on. And now, she has decided that she was afraid of the dark. She is 15.

I go to our room just shaking my head. I mean, what can I do? I go to my room, turn off all the lights, snuggle into my blankets and put earplugs in.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Now that we've returned home, there is soooooo much to do. Just being gone for 2 has really put us behind. The garden is a mess! I planted turnips in the early spring, so they are almost ready to pick. I did pick a few. The beans needed weeded(well to be honest everything needs weeded). Now today, I'm going to tie the tomatoes up again. They are growing so much.

The zucchini is still there. I have resisted the temptation to pick it. But, I don't know how much more I can stand. Good thing there are more than one zucchini growing right now. Or is that worse, more temptation.

The beans are just about ready to bloom. The bugs are getting at them though. Is 7 Dust considered organic? If not, what's the best thing to use?

Now to the corn, it's growing, but, something has snipped the tops off. The very top of the corn is gone. Yes, I thought of the deer. Thinking maybe they finally found it. But, there are no deer prints in the garden. As muddy as it is, there would be prints. The only prints that are in the corn is Luke's, our St. Bernard. I really don't think he's eating it. But, you never know.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Like I said in my previous blog, me and Hubby went to Amish country for our 10th anniversary. I figured who better to learn a few things about homesteading than from the modern day homesteaders themselves? Well, I was very surprised in my findings.

First, the Amish aren't as self dependent as you would think. There were a lot of them that would use solar panels on their houses. They also used gas motors on their farming equipment. Now, their hay mower might be be drawn by horses, but, there was a gas motor running the actual mowing machine itself. They even mowed their grass with a gas push motor. They,also, milk their cows with milking machines powered by generators.

Second, they buy a lot of their food from a store. We had to pick a few things up at Wal-mart,(yes, there even is a Wal-mart in the Amish country)and we seen Amish with carts full of Pepsi and Gator Aid. How disappointing. If they buy a cake mix from a grocery store,(and they do)and bake a cake, is it still considered Amish made?

Third, they ride around in cars all the time. They might not own them, but they ride in them. They will have friend who drive cars and take them places. The Mennonites own their own cars.

Finally, and this is not really the last thing, they have telephones outside their houses in little phone booths. Now you tell me, what's the difference between having a phone booth inside your house compared to outside. Isn't that the same as not smoking in the house. Your still smoking!

Anyway, it was still fun. There was a lot of commercialism there though. The most fun we had was just driving around the back roads. Now after my rant about the modern day Amish, there still are a few old timey Amish. They are the hard core Amish. They milk their cows by hand. They don't have battery operated lights on their buggies. I wanted to ask them questions about their lives,about the way they live. But, I felt weird asking them questions and looking at them as they worked in their fields. I didn't want them to feel like they were animals at the zoo on exhibit

We do have friends that go to our church who have close friends that live up there. They are old school Amish. The next time we go up there we are taking our friends with us. That way they can introduce us to them. I'll be able to get more questions asked that way.

Now, does anybody know what these are called? Well?

Hay Doodles!!!!

How funny! I mean couldn't SOMEBODY have come up with a better name than that? I don't know, maybe straw stacks or something.

While we were there, we went to a horse and buggy auction. Now this big feller knows the true meaning of horse power.

These were a team that kept going back and forth in front of us while we were standing there. Is that considered a two horse powered tractor. How did they get the term horse power anyway?

Now this little(well not little, let's say young)feller was all hyped up. Whinnying and going around in circles. The Amish love a horse like that. Don't ask me why. I'm more confused now than I ever was.

He thought he was something though. Which he was.

We did visit Leammans while we were up there. It was AWESOME! It was HUGE! Me and Hubby walked around in it for hours. I could have stayed longer but, you know the old saying for church, "Your mind can only absorb what your butt can handle." That's what my feet kept telling me. They do have a smaller Leammans in one of the little town up there too. It's not as commercialize. We didn't have time to go there. Maybe next time.

But out of all of traveling we did, the thing I did learn was, there still is no place like home.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

I just have a second to say that me and Hubby just got back from our vacation trip.It was our 10th anniversary Friday. Yea!!!(and they say it wouldn't last) We went to the Amish country in northern Ohio. I was really fun.I will be posting photos soon and of course telling some about our experiences. Hopefully tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Isn't that the prettiest sight you've ever seen? I've waited months to see one of these beauties. With all of the rain we have had here, it's a wonder that I could get this close to take a picture without sinking up to my eyeballs in mud.

Our tomatoes are doing really good this year.(so far) Now if we can keep the weeds down. The weeds like the rain too.

I think Skeeter is looking for rabbits in the turnips. I hope she scared them all away. To the far left is our onions, then beets, then turnips, then the beans,(please don't look at the weeds, they are gone now.I said don't look!)

This is another pretty sight, our first zucchini. I can taste it now. Do you know how hard it is NOT to pick it before it's ready? I'm tempted every time I look at it. I look at it a thousand times a day.(Okay maybe not a thousand, but I look at it a lot.)

Saturday, June 6, 2009

I love birds. Every type of birds. I love watching them in our hay fields. I like watching them eat from my bird feeders. I even like the ones that have made nests on my front porch.(Don't like the the poop on my porch though) Me and Hubby will sit on our front porch in the morning and listen to the meadow larks calling back and forth. At night, we will sit and listen to the whipper-whirls whipping back and forth. I like all birds. But,(you guys knew this was coming didn't ya) I have this bird, a mocking bird to be exact, that sits on the fence post right outside our bedroom window. It thinks that it's main job in life is to wake me up before my alarm clock does, WAY before my alarm clock.

I've begged and pleaded with him, but he just doesn't care. I've tried to reason with him that I stayed up late last night doing something real important.( like read) He just ignores me. He's very unreasonable. I've tried covering my head with my pillow. He just sings louder. I've even yelled at him though the screen in my window. Nothing. He just flies away, just long enough to where I can doze back off to sleep. Then, BOOM, he's right back on the fence post laughing at me. But, as soon as I've had enough and throw the covers off of me and my feet hit the floor, he flies away. I've tried to trick him and go back to sleep, nope, I think he watches me. If I don't get all the way up, he's back.

I think this bird has some evil ploy against me. I don't know why. I didn't hold any of his offspring hostage for money or anything like that. Maybe he is just mean.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Not much going on here today. I worked and Hubby put his motorcycle back together. (Don't get me started) It rained here ALL day. So after work me and Hubby went to Tractor Supply to get chicken feed. I also ended up with more canning jars. $10.99 for a dozen. Canning is not as cheep as it use to be.

Anyway, at work this week,I started talking to people about how me and Hubby are trying to be more self reliant. I talked about our garden, about canning, and about how I want to get a milk cow and goat sometime down the road. I was surprised of all the positive feedback I got. In fact, I had about 50% of my clients say they would love to do the same thing if they had the room. They also told me that when my garden starts to produce they would like to buy some of the veggies if I have any extras. A few of them said they would love to buy some of the cheese and butter I want to make. They said the cost doesn't matter. They just want good organic food. Now the question...Is this something to look into? Should I start thinking about selling my produce? And what about getting a milk cow or goat? I want to get one eventually, but, should I look into getting one sooner? Would I be getting in over my head way too fast? If so, how could I start it on a smaller scale?

Just something to think about. Me and Hubby both love farming and raising our garden and raising our grass fed beef. We are slowly getting a following for our cattle. Should we try to sell some of our garden produce too?

Oh, and one more question,(like you haven't been asked enough already) can a beef cow work as a milk cow? I know they don't produce a lot of milk, but, we don't drink gallons and gallons of milk. I was wondering about butter and cheeses and a small amount to drink. Guess I'll have to look into it some more.

Monday, June 1, 2009

We have a hen setting! Hubby marked a few brown eggs that she was sitting on with a marker so we could tell which ones she was trying to hatch. We have other hens that will get in the same nest as she is and lay their eggs. You will come into the chicken house sometimes and there will be two hens in the same nest. They must really like each other.

We have different kinds of chickens. Some will lay green eggs,some blue, and some will lay brown eggs. I like the chickens that lay the brown eggs. It might just be our deranged chickens, but ,the ones that lay the brown eggs seem to be more calm. The other chickens are real flighty. They get nervous over some of the dumbest things. They just act more wild. So we only let the hen sit on brown eggs. We are hoping to get a calmer chicken.

I've got a couple question. Is it called "setting" or "sitting?"

Another question is, can a chicken change the color of it's egg?

We have had our chickens for about 2 years now. They all are mature hens. But of late, we have been getting a white egg. What I want to know is HOW? We have never had a white egg before. I mean really, what's the deal? Is one of our hens out sourcing? Is she paying a seragent egg layer? You might think that it really is just a light color of green or blue. Nope, it's white. I can put it up against a piece of white paper. It's white.It really has me puzzled. Will I go out to the chicken house one early morning to find another hen smuggling in a white egg? If so why? Okay, I'm going a little overboard here. But it is a mystery.

I recieved an award today for my blog. I really appriciated this, but I don't know how to do anything with it. I haven't figured out how to post a link to the people who I think deserve an award too. I don't even know what this award is about. Sorry.But, thanks anyway.

About Me

I grew up on 2 acres of land north of Columbus OH. Mom had a small garden,I had a horse,and Dad had his tractor, but we were far from what you would call homesteaders. It wasn't until I moved to Kentucky and married my husband did I start to have a small interest in growing a garden again. We have a few head of cattle, a small herd of horses, a flock of chickens and 2 dogs. And the garden, it keeps growing and growing each year. We decided we want to be more self-reliant. I don't know much about homesteading, but I'm willing to learn as I go. Oh, this could get good.